By Edward Clark.
MTN Group has been meeting with international bond investors after a decade out of the Eurobond market as Africa’s largest mobile network operator pursues a large acquisition and a significant debt comes due next month.
Absa Group, Bank of America Corp, Citigroup and MUFG organised meetings between the company and fixed-income managers in London last week, according to people familiar with the matter.
A spokesperson for MTN told Bloomberg News that the meetings were an opportunity for the company to update bond investors following the release of earnings in August. The company has also been meeting with equity investors, they added. Absa, Bank of America and Citigroup did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson for MUFG declined to comment.
The meetings were part of a “non-deal” roadshow, indicating no specific transaction was being marketed, while laying the foundations for a new issue should MTN want to pursue one, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private meetings.
MTN hasn’t sold bonds in the international market since 2016 and its last outstanding Eurobond comes due in October. The company is under no immediate pressure to access the bond market to refinance that $500 million note and in its latest results said it had sufficient resources to repay the debt.
At the same time, the group has a number of demands on its cash reserves. In February, MTN announced the proposed acquisition of IHS Towers, a New York-listed owner and operator of telecommunications infrastructure across Africa.
MTN already owns close to a 25% stake in the company and is in the process of buying out the remaining shares for a consideration of around $2.2 billion. MTN’s management said that they would raise debt to partially finance the transaction in a results call held on August 24.
Johannesburg-listed MTN is Africa’s largest mobile network operator with almost 320 million subscribers, generating revenues of more than R115.3 billion ($70 billion) during the first half of this year.
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